


Two Broken Men Become Whole

by gllh0222



Category: 1917 (Movie 2019)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Good Blake Family, M/M, Period-Typical Homophobia, Suicidal Thoughts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-18
Updated: 2020-11-18
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:34:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27617702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gllh0222/pseuds/gllh0222
Summary: William Schofield knew he would find nothing good on the war front, but he never expected to find Thomas Blake.
Relationships: Tom Blake/William Schofield
Comments: 4
Kudos: 44





	Two Broken Men Become Whole

William Schofield never wanted to go to war. 

Unlike some of his comrades he had not volunteered, choosing instead to finish his studies on the quiet grounds of Oxford – far away from the war effort. 

But a sudden and unfortunate expulsion, forced him out of his bookish life and the Military Service Act forced him to the front. 

William Schofield knew he would find nothing good on the war front, but he never expected to find Thomas Blake. 

*

Thomas Blake wanted nothing more than to go to war. 

He was desperate to enlist, the second he was old enough, hungry to escape the quiet, sleepy grounds of his family’s cherry orchard. 

As soon as he hit 19 he was off, headed toward the front in search of adventure, glory, and of course his brother. 

He expected far more good than what he did find, but what he never expected was William Schofield. 

*

In the wake of the Somme, William Schofield is a broken man. 

The horrors of the battlefield stalk his nights and the regrets of his Oxford days keep him from finding kinship with his fellow soldiers. Even his leave is haunted by the mistakes of his past – his sister unable to look him in the eye, his nieces afraid of the hollow man he has become. 

By the time Thomas Blake joins the 8th, Will has given up on trying to learn the names of the recruits. Soon, too soon, they will be gone and he has little faith that anything will be different about this group. 

*

When Thomas Blake joins the 8th on the fields of France, the first thing he notices is a man sitting alone far from the others. He looks worn, broken – beautiful – though Tom quickly pushes that thought from his head. 

As he settles in, he learns more about the man. 

His fellow soldiers tell him the man has been on the front longer than anyone else in the unit, that he refuses his leave, that he doesn’t talk.

To anyone else, it’s a warning, a reminder to stay away. 

To Thomas Blake it’s an invitation. 

Back on his parent’s orchard he loved the stray dogs that wandered onto the farm. Often broken, scared creatures, Tom would devote his time to training, showing them goodness and love, working with them until they were no longer terrified mutts, but loving, family ready pets.

To Tom, William Schofield is a caged animal– scared, terrified, by the horrors he’s experienced, desperate for someone to remind him of the goodness in the world. 

*

In the early days of Tom’s life on the front, he did what he could to be near Schofield, often working near the older man. Together they would dig, stack, or pack in silence, Tom slowly working to gain his trust. 

On the evening of his first advance, Tom couldn’t help but be nervous. Hands shaking, dread in his stomach, he followed Scofield over the top and soon found himself in the middle of the war. 

It was not the adventure he signed up for. 

Desperately running for the next trench, the next inch, he watched most of the men he started with fall. Shells, shrapnel, bullets rained around him, blood and mud covered his clothes, the only light ahead of him Scofield.  
*

After the last advance Will knows he should say something, try and comfort the younger man who’s been shadowing him for the last few weeks, but he can’t bring himself to speak. 

He doesn’t even know the younger man’s name. 

Instead he continues to work near him, continuing on together in silent agreement. 

It’s several weeks and a few more advances before the younger man gets a letter at breakfast and Will finally learns his name: Thomas Blake. 

It reminds him of a man he met once in his early days, Joe, John, maybe Jeremy Blake and he wonders aloud if they know each other, “Do you know a Joe Blake?”

Tom looks shocked, mouth agape at Will’s sudden attempt at conversation, “Yeah, he’s my brother. How do you know him?”

Will regrets the question immediately, “I don’t really… heard of him at training, the name just sounded familiar. God, I’m so sorry to bring it up.”

But Tom looks delighted. 

After months on the front he’s finally gotten the older man to speak and he never wants him to stop. 

Quickly he launches into a story about his older brother that has Will softly laughing along with him and Tom wishes he could record the sound and play it on repeat.

*

After the letter, things change between Will and Tom. 

What had once been a reluctant mentorship, a brief training on the front, has turned into a full blown friendship. 

Quickly Tom finds himself sharing every meal with Schofield, laughing, telling each other stories, dreaming about life after the war. 

Before either of them realize it they’re all but inseparable, common knowledge among the others that if you find Blake, it won’t be very long until you find Schofield too. 

Throughout it all one thought won’t leave Tom’s head – William Schofield is a beautiful man. 

*

Will knows he should stop it – this thing with Blake is getting out of hand. 

The younger man has taken up residence in Will’s mind, in his soul, and worst of all his heart.

He doesn’t know what he would do without Tom, but the thoughts that fill his head, his dreams for a better life, a different life, with Blake by his side, are just plain wrong. 

He knows he needs to let go. 

These thoughts would disgust Blake if he ever knew, but William Schofield is not a good man and the idea of not having Tom around anymore makes him want to go over the top and walk right in front of the German line. 

*

It’s nearly six months after Tom joins the 8th when they’re given their impossible mission. 

When Will turns to see Blake stabbed by the pilot. 

When Will holds the man he loves in his arms as he dies, still unable to say the one thing he wants to more than ever. 

*

William Schofield knows he is not a good man. 

He doesn’t finish the mission for the 1600 men that may live if he delivers the message. 

He does it solely because Tom Blake asked him to – asked him to save his brother. 

If he had not, Will would have stayed with Tom forever, never leaving his side, never knowing what a world without Thomas Blake would look like. 

Tom is the only thing that keeps him going as runs through the ruins of Ecoust, as he floats down the river, as he goes over the top and begs that God takes him too. 

Tom is his only thought as he settles beside the tree, so like the one he and Tom used to rest on, and starts to realise that Tom is no longer in his life. 

*

In the wake of the April 6, they honourably discharge him, his injuries too much to justify sending him back to the front. 

Will hates going home. 

There is nothing left for him in England but a sister who can’t look him in the eye and nieces that are too afraid of the broken parts of him. 

He wants to be back at the front, waiting for Tom to come and tell him stories of Myrtle and her puppies or at the very least lying in No Man’s Land waiting for God to take him where he took Tom. 

Instead he’s in a bedsit in London, paid for by the military, being told to reintegrate into civilian life. 

He knows that’s not going to happen. 

The war haunts the little sleep he gets. 

Everywhere he goes he sees Tom, standing on street corners, in line next to him at the grocery, lying lifeless on the floor of his flat. 

He knows there’s only one way for it to stop, but he can’t bring himself to end it. 

Something is keeping him alive and he doesn’t know what or why. He just wishes it would stop.

*

On cold November evening Will learns the war is over. 

A peace treaty has been signed and in the end nothing was won. 

*

In early December he finds himself on a train to Bakewell. 

After Tom’s death he sent a letter to Mrs. Blake and she had replied inviting him to her home. 

It had taken him a long time to build up the will to go, but knowing that Joe might finally be there draws him to the country. 

*

After hours rolling though the English countryside he finds himself in a quaint little town.

He hasn’t called ahead, he’s made no reservations to the stay the night, but his gut is pulling him through the cobblestone streets of the town and he is listening. 

On the outskirts he finds the cherry orchard and makes his way to the door. 

He knows he should have given Mrs. Blake a warning, but fear kept him from it. What if he never made it there? What if she learned his true feelings towards Tom? There were too many what if’s that kept him from making a plan. 

At the front door he hesitates, gathers all the courage he has, and knocks – a dog’s bark pulling him back to reality. 

Soon the door opens and he is once again faced with Thomas Blake. 

*

Tom can’t believe his eyes. 

There on his doorstep is William Schofield - a man he had long believed dead. 

“Will?” the word leaves his lips before he can even think.

Throwing his arms around the older man he cries, “I thought you were dead. I sent so many letters – I thought you died.”

At his words Will begins to sob, “I didn’t, I never got them.”

Schofield’s face buried in his shoulder, he learns that the older man was convinced he was dead. That no one informed him that he had been found, that medics had gotten there right on time, that Tom had been saved. 

*

Together they sob for what feels like a lifetime, desperately clinging each other on the porch of the Blake house. 

Tom knows he never wants to let this man go again and he hopes to every God in even heaven that he’ll never have to. 

*

It’s Joe who finds them. 

“Tom, who was – Will?” he cries out, “God we thought – oh forget what we thought it so good to see you.”

Somehow Joe manages to pull Will into a hug of his own without breaking Tom’s contact. 

“Well now come inside,” Joe urges and slow the pair follow him inside. 

*

In the living room Will meets Tom’s mother. 

He knows he should let go of Tom, but he can’t bring himself to do it and she never mentions it. 

Instead, she thanks him for his letter saying how grateful she was to get the news from someone who cared about her son rather than a secretary – even if the news wasn’t completely accurate. 

When suppertime comes she doesn’t kick him out, but invites him to join them. 

She tells stories of Tom as a child and Will discovers where Tom got his ability to tell a tale.

Never does she try and separate them offering instead to bring extra pillows and blankets up to Tom’s room. 

*

Will knows he should ask after a guestroom, that it’s improper for two men outside the trenches to share a bed, but he can’t bring himself to be separated from Tom. 

Tom who is here. 

Who is alive. 

Who Will is so afraid to let go of. 

*

Their night starts out in silence. 

Soft breaths the only sound that fill the room. 

Between them there is only a small gap, a courtesy if you will, a pretense that lets them pretend that this is ok. 

As midnight rolls into one and the darkness of the night becomes still the gap closes and Will finds Tom pressed into his side. 

By the light of moon Will turns and traces the lines of Tom’s face, unable to believe that right in front of him is a man who was supposed to be dead. That was dead, at least to Will, only hours ago. 

In the silence, Will finally gets the one things he’s always wanted. 

As one becomes two Tom’s lips find his and Will knows that he will go to the end of the earth for this man.

That he would give everything he has and everything he might have to taste Tom’s lips once more. 

*

When morning comes neither has slept and neither has spoken, both too afraid to break this precious thing between them. 

As the sun rises Will knows he will have to get up, that he will have to let Tom go, that he will have to face the Blake’s knowing the sins he has committed, but he figures if one sin is going to send him straight hell he might as well enjoy kissing Thomas Blake for as long as he can.

*

When they finally emerge for breakfast Mrs. Blake and Joe are already sitting at the table, knowing smirks on their faces. 

Tom can’t help but blush and Will wants to crawl into a hole. 

For Will breakfast feels more awkward than it probably is, but he can’t bring himself to speak. 

Instead he listens as Joe tells some story about Myrtle, all while watching Tom across the table. 

*

When breakfast is finally over, Mrs. Blake pulls Tom into the kitchen to help with the dishes and Joe turns to him. 

He knows Joe is going to tell him to leave and that he shouldn’t fight it, but he’s so afraid of a world without Tom that he just might.

“Thank-you so much for coming,” Joe says to him, leaving Will shocked. 

“I’m sorry I didn’t give any notice.”

“It’s fine, as you can see we’ve managed,” Joes laughs. “Will you brought my brother back to me when you knocked our door. He’s been so broken since he got home, so lost. We all thought you were dead and with that I think a part of him died. 

It’s so good to see him with you. 

I don’t care what your relationship is. I don’t care if you’re just good mates or if you and him are something that the world probably thinks you shouldn’t be, so long as you make my brother as happy as he’s been today, you will be welcome in this house.”

*

Tom can’t help but worry about Will stuck in the dining room with his brother. 

He knows Will can hold his own in a fight, but Tom doesn’t think this will be a fight. Just a simple demand to leave that Will, being the good man that he is, will do in an effort to protect Tom. 

“Tom,” his mother starts as she passes him a plate, “no matter how hard you try, you’ll never have any secrets from me.”

Tom knows it’s over, that he will have to pick between Will and his family and he knows the choice he is going to make. 

“You try to hide it, but I know how hard the war was for you. How hard it’s been to come home. How much you wish you could leave it all behind. 

And how you loved that dear Will of yours – long before he showed up on our doorstep. 

Now I may not understand it, but if the war has taught me anything it’s to not let you boys go. 

So I’ll not make you choose between him or us, I’ll not make you hide. Instead know that I love you and that if Will is the one you pick, then I love him too.”

*

With the Blake family’s blessing, Will and Tom become inseparable once again. 

Mornings are filled with work helping out on the orchard. 

Evening become story time where Will is invited to laugh at the Blake family antics. 

Nights allow Will to learn every inch of Tom and in turn for Tom to learn everything about Will. 

They plan for a future and as the months pass they pool together their savings to buy a little flat in London with a second bedroom they never plan to use. 

*

In the years after the war they open a bookstore/café each indulging in their passions unwilling to spend any time they don’t have to apart. 

Joe and his family become regular visitors. 

Mrs. Blake takes up residence in the second bedroom when working on the farm becomes impossible. 

Among their friends their relationship is an open secret, never discussed, never reported and their bookstore becomes a haven of sorts to men like themselves. 

*

Tom knows they’ll never get married, as much as he wishes they could. 

They’ll never stand in front of their friends and family in black tuxes and present each other with gold rings. There will never be bad toasts and firsts dances, but still they pledge their lives to each other. 

In the dark of their bedroom Will whispers promises to him and Tom makes vows of his own and in the night two broken men become whole.


End file.
